Stilts (Kushui stilts)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: stilts (Kushui stilts)

Applicant: Yongdeng County, Gansu Province

Item No.: 112

Project No.: Ⅲ - 9

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: traditional dance

Region: Gansu Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Yongdeng County, Gansu Province

Protection unit: Yongdeng County Cultural Center

Introduction to stilts (Kushui stilts)

Applicant: Yongdeng County, Gansu Province

Stilts, also known as "stilt Yangko", is a kind of folk dance which is widely spread all over the country. It is named for stepping on stilts. Stilts have a long history, which originated from a kind of technical performance in ancient operas. In the Northern Wei Dynasty, there were stone carvings of walking on stilts. Stilts were generally performed in the form of dance teams, with a number of more than ten to dozens of people. Most of the dancers played the role image in an ancient myth or historical story, and their costumes were mostly imitated from opera lines. The common props were fans, handkerchiefs, sticks, knives and guns, etc There are two forms of performance: "stepping on the street" and "abandoning the field". Abandoning the field has "big field" where the dance team dances while walking in various formation patterns, and "small field" where two or three people perform. Most of the characters dance with men and women, and sometimes sing while dancing. The stilts used in different places vary in height from 30cm to 300cm. From the performance style, it can be divided into "Wenqiao" and "Wuqiao", Wenqiao focuses on twisting and stepping and plot performance; Wuqiao focuses on showing off skills.

Kushui Street stilts in Yongdeng County, Gansu Province, originated in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasty, and now has a history of nearly 700 years. Stilts is a folk performing art handed down by local ancestors. It is also a traditional reserved program in the social fire of the second dragon rising in February of the lunar calendar. The performers put on traditional costumes, painted the faces of the characters in the Qin opera, took props, stepped on stilts, lined up in long lines, and performed in the street under the guidance of the powerful line-up of the Taiping drum team. The height of Kushui stilts is 3 to 3.3 meters, ranking first in China.

Nowadays, Kushui stilts are faced with the dilemma of inheritance, the psychological instability of performers and the crisis of dance survival, which requires the relevant departments to invest financial, human and material resources to explore and protect.